August 05, 2013
We all need a champion.
 
A champion notices our bright moments and encourages them. Without a champion small mistakes can feel like failure and failure can begin to inform identity. For this reason, Questscope has been championing youth in the Middle East for 25 years and has now expanded its work to the United States.
 
We call champions mentors and our goal is to pair every youth in Brooklyn Park, MN with one. Yes, every youth. Admittedly, this is a large goal, but the project is already progressing. Last year, Questscope embedded the One2One mentoring program in North View Junior High and paired 31 seventh and eighth graders with mentors. 
 
Our inaugural group of remarkable students demonstrated responsibility and bravery in their lives, but also experienced numerous challenges at home and school. Questscope and North View Junior High, however, refused to allow those challenges to grow into failure and influence how they saw themselves. Instead, mentors from a local community college, slowly and deliberately spent time listening to students and becoming their champions.  
 
What if every youth had a champion?
 
This upcoming October the One2One mentoring program will seek to provide more youth with mentors through two major strategies:
 
•Triple the amount of student and mentor participants
•Develop a scalable mentor recruitment system at North Hennepin Community College
 
Through One2One’s partnerships and innovative recruitment system, the goal of providing a champion for all youth in Brooklyn Park, MN might be more possible than ever.